Nor think that rigour's galling chains can bind "Twas not from such the glowing ardour rose That followers drew to WALLACE and MONTROSE. Kind twisting round each heart the lasting bond; END OF THE HIGHLANDERS. NOTES ON, THE HIGHLANDERS. No. 1. Our hardy myrtle scatter'd fragrance round.-P. 22. This plant, which the natives call Rhoit, resembles the myrtle in its aromatic smell, though it is very unlike it in its leaves. It abounds in boggy places, and produces in rich shelter'd spots a berry resembling the bilberry, but of a larger size and finer flavour. No. 2. To view each social hamlet's mutual plough.-P. 23. What the Highlanders call 'm Balli, is a conjunct farm generally occupied by eight families, living together in a kind of scatter'd hamlet; of these, four join together about a plough, each furnishing a horse, and all their rural toils are carried on in the same social manner. No. 3. While at the frugal meal the blue smokes rise.-P. 24. This is a provincial phrase peculiar to the North, and very emphatic as it is used there; they say, "He was a "good man, for he could see from his door a hundred "smokes rise on his own ground." And again, "He "cannot thrive, for he put out fifty smokes in one morn"ing;" signifying the removal of so many tenants. No. 4. Thus lives-the theme of many a plaintive lay.-P. 25. SIR JAMES MACDONALD, a young Chief, greatly beloved, and much lamented by his people. He died at Rome in the 25th year of his age. No. 5. Repeats emphatic, " They return no more."-P. 26. There is a plaintive air which the Highlanders always play on the bagpipes at funerals or on other mournful occasions, which when heard out of Scotland, affects a Highlander much in the same way as "Ranz de Vaches" does a Swiss. The words "Ha pill, ha pill, ha pill, mi tuillidh," signify, "We return, return, return, no more." The Author has heard it played to two parties of emigrants marching towards the sea. No. 6. In peopled straths, where winding streams prolong.-P. 34. Strath is an expression peculiar to the Highlands, to the North Highlands, chiefly; it forms that natural division of the country, which was highly favourable both to the union of those little societies called Clans, and to the separation of those miniature nations from each other; for there was a variation of character, stile, and even dress, betwixt every two straths. In the centre of Scotland are certain high mountains, such as Corryaric, Benevis, &c. which rise betwixt the eastern and western coasts, and from which the rivers descending into the opposite seas, originate. From these centrical mountains, which run from south to north, descend others in connected chains, running parallel to each other, towards the east and west seas, and losing themselves gradually in the flat country, or at the sea side. The openings between these parallel mountains are called Straths, and form distinct districts, generally watered by considerable rivers, as Strath-Tay, Strathern, Strathspey, Strathmore, Stratherick, Strath-Glas, &c. These are in general ruled by some nobleman, or great personage, who is Lord Paramount, as it were. The smaller proprietors commonly live at the mouth of a glen or narrow valley, in the openings between the distinct mountains which form these lateral chains. Through these glens run tributary streams that flow into the main river; and it is at the confluence of these little rivers with the larger, that the seats of the Chieftains are generally erected; while their respective clans inhabit the valley behind. Thus the very face of the country, and the natural divisions of it, serve to cherish that social spirit, and those strongly-attached little communities, G |